The Wikipedia page states that they can monitor brightness changes through a window and correlate that to a broadcast programme. How they deal with network delays and time shifting is another matter.
The full description sounds like a normal digital camera to be honest, almost as if someone has gone to great verbal lengths to disguise the fact it is simply a camera:
"The optical detector in the detector van uses a large lens to collect that light and focus it on to an especially sensitive device, which converts fluctuating light signals into electrical signals, which can be electronically analysed."
For many years I had heard that the real enforcement tool was the fact that anyone selling a TV in the UK, like an electrical retailer such as Comet or Currys, had to submit the name and address of the purchaser to the TV Licensing authority. I just did a quick google, and it turns out this really was the case for a really long time!
This exact thing happened to me when I was a student. In '94 when myself and 6 other first-year students moved into a house, one of the first things we did was get a TV sorted out between us. Renting TV's was still a thing then and doing so was quite viable for a bunch of students who didn't have the disposable cash to just go and buy a TV.
"Paul" put his name on the rental agreement. of course we needed the license too so that day we got that sorted too. "George" (there was a John too, and I was sorely disappointed to find there wasn't a Ringo!) arranged it and her name went on the license. a few weeks went by and sure enough we got a visit from the "Detector Van" because Radio Rentals told the licensing authority that we had taken delivery of a TV and of course that didn't match their records of a license holder... never mind that the address was covered and it was a shared house. (not individual apartments)
A similar thing happened a couple of years later when I moved in with a bunch of guys who just didn't bother with a license and I was in when a guy with a clipboard of address that didn't have licenses just went door to door checking if there was a TV in use. he had a "detector van" but it was just the output of a database select.
For a while the licensing agency even had ads to the effect that "detection" is just the output of a database.
Alos youtube is full of people their their harrassment by licencing officials because they don't have a license
Really? bizzare. Even the UK TV Licensing authority in the UK calls itself the the "Licensing authority"! Given it has legal enforcement powers and a team to enforce them the term "Authority" is absolutely appropriate.
"Since 1991, the BBC, in its role as the relevant licensing authority, has been responsible for collecting and enforcing the TV Licence fee."
One of those vans with tinted windows would make an awesome camper van. Clearly you would be geographically limited to the UK however if that van was quietly parked up somewhere then nobody would suspect someone was sleeping in it.
A vintage one would be cool too, probably a bit tricky in headwinds with that weight on the top. You could also watch TV pretty well just by watching what other people had on. Shame LCD flatscreens ended this nonsense.
Most people believed the vans were mythical and that they just had a map with a database. The vans - according to some - were fake, just to put fear into people.
The should be so lucky...PPV is a crazy industry in terms of structure but local ppv providers would send uncover patrons to bars to find illegal ppv streams and next thing a bar/restaurant knows they got served with a lawsuit usually for about $10,000 (for UFC events anyway).
Eh, I prefer dark future dystopia's that rely on terrible human nature - call me when the provider starts injecting an advertisement into the game over all residentially broadcast streams "We're conducting a market research survey, are you seeing this in a pub or bar? If so call this number for a free 10$ starbucks gift card!" or even just "Broadcast of this program in a pub or bar is illegal, if you have witnessed this call this number to collect a finder's fee."
I recall hearing of a DirecTV or similar network using a trick like that: In the minutes prior to a PPV broadcast, they sent a "Subscriber bonus - call now to claim your free T-shirt" or something, but it was encrypted with a key that the legit receivers didn't have -- only the pirate receivers could decode it. Thousands claimed it...
I can't find a source for this anecdote at the moment, sorry.
